Seven genera and ca. 250 species: tropical America, E and SE Asia, Australia, Indian Ocean islands (Mauritius and Rodrigues); one species in China.

The family has recently been monographed (R. J. Chinnock, Eremophila and allied genera: A monograph of the plant family Myoporaceae, 1-672. 2007), and Pentacoelium was re-instated as a genus distinct from Myoporum Banks & Solander ex G. Forster. Although Pentacoelium is comparable vegetatively with species of Myoporum, the flowers are much larger and the fruit are quite different. The fruit of Pentacoelium are large and the most complex in the family. The fruit are similar in size and internal structures to Bontia Linnaeus, a genus endemic to the Caribbean and surrounding coastal areas of South America. Both genera show fruit features that suggest adaptation to dispersal by water, but the fruit of Pentacoelium are more complicated with a star-shaped inner woody zone and up to 10 locules and subapical lacunae extending down into the fruit.